Manchester United 4 - 3 Europe XI

A night of miscellaneous commemorations it certainly was. Was it also a night to remember? Not as much. The event, co-organised by the European Commission, UEFA and Manchester United was a charity game in celebration of the 50^th anniversary of the EEC founding Rome Treaty and the 50^th anniversary of European football for Manchester United. It was also an opportunity for former United legend Andrew Cole to pull on the shirt once more, for new United legend Henrik Larsson to play at Old Trafford one last time – as opposition striker - and for David Beckham to come on the field and thank the fans for their support during what he described as ‘the best time in my footballing career’.

The Europe team, coached by World Cup winning Italy manager Marcello Lippi, comprised a fair few stars even if colourful characters like Ronaldinho had withdrawn. United started with practically their strongest available eleven, as promised by Sir Alex, but the stars of the first half – Rooney and Ronaldo – were replaced at half-time. As were almost the entire Europe team, Lippi fielding his players for the night in two teams. It was a friendly in all senses of the word, smiles instead of tackles and if the referee had remembered to bring a whistle he barely had to use it. If the game in the second half became a bit dull it was still quite sweet to watch all these international stars playing with a ball and each other. The only unfriendly aspect about this friendly was the Manchester fans booing the Liverpool players, very uncalled for.

Manchester United started on a roll against opposition which, for obvious reasons, could never match their tactical togetherness. The scoring began after only a few minutes with a lovely pass from Scholes cutting through the Europe midfield and met by a perfectly timed run by Rooney, who easily put it past the advancing Carnizares. Four minutes later United scored from a corner kick which was converted to a cross after some magnificent work by Giggs, allowing Brown to tap it in. Europe then equalised through a great shot by Malouda from 25 yards. Ronaldo did his best to entertain the audience with his moves during his 45 minutes, partly by foot movement which inadvertently turned into a break-dance act which lost him the ball and partly by scoring with a wonderful free kick and putting the score up 3-1. The free kick came after Pirlo had brought down Park, one of two offences in the game. The second came a few minutes later, when Brown fouled Ibrahimovic in the box and thereby awarded Europe with a penalty. The Swede took the penalty – and sent it full force into the bar. Two fouls, but many more comedy moments. The entertaining first half closed in style as Ronaldo made a nice run in the centre of midfield and crossed expertly to an unmarked Park. The South Korean put the ball in the box for Rooney, who shot it in.

The second half saw Europe initially looking stronger, mainly due to Gerrard as a midfield engine, but both teams lost some of their attacking flair and when they began defending better the action became more restricted to the middle. Paul Scholes nearly gave Europe a goal by some humorous fiddling with the ball outside his own goal: he practically gave the ball to Sweden midfielder Källström, whose attempt at getting it in was saved by 21 year-old keeper Heaton. The ovations and cheers from the home fans when Larsson was replaced rapidly turned into boos as his replacement turned out to be Robbie Fowler. Even if there were some nice individual moves by the players the entertainment slowed down and an attempt by the Old Trafford audience to create some action by a seemingly never-ending wave was about as fluent as it got. Andrew Cole’s accomplished crosses were missed by new recruit Dong, keeping the score at 4 for United, and Europe only got a goal through a penalty (taken by Diouf) awarded for handball by Heinze.

Innocent family entertainment involving superstars and a ball, which was watched by 74 343 people at Old Trafford (along with heavens knows how many more across Europe) and raised 1.25m for charity. From a Swedish point of view it was nice to see not only Larsson and Ibrahimovic, but also Kim Källström get international recognition. And Gianluca Zambrotta is always good value. But essentially this was a night for Manchester United fans to remember and for the rest of us to forget.